Meet Robyn

We recently connected with Robyn and have shared our conversation below.

Robyn, sincerely appreciate your selflessness in agreeing to discuss your mental health journey and how you overcame and persisted despite the challenges. Please share with our readers how you overcame. For readers, please note this is not medical advice, we are not doctors, you should always consult professionals for advice and that this is merely one person sharing their story and experience.

Mental health is essential to my work primarily being used as a tool rather than an obstacle. The direction of my artwork is influenced by the chaos to serenity of thoughts, emotions, and mental states of being. My fascination with mentality and desire to understand it better are what drove me to minor in psychology at my university – I’ve learned a lot about myself and grew deep empathy for those who battle mental health issues and even more for those who frustrate over the incapablity to understand their own crisis. My visual surrealism style is quite literally where I bend the subconscious reality into deep meanings and is why I specifically take my real nightmare artwork to heart.
I offer liberation from trapped minds in the form of creative expression, symbolism, depth, and tone without anyone needing to find the words for them. The mind is fluent in abstraction and interpretation is personal. One day, my artwork may speak of isolation; another day, the same piece may speak of peace. Mental health is not always ill nor always perfect, and vulnerable expression is my favorite form of care for all mental transformations.

Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?

I’ve been very appreciative of the opportunities I’ve been given to showcase my artwork, develop my skills, experiment with new mediums, and get more involved with my community! I could never be myself without continuing to paint nature and uncanny subjects, and I try to not place limitations to my forms of expression. I’ve ventured deeper than ever into the world of body art and hope to continue expanding my art style from canvas onto skin for various occasions such as event days and haunt seasons, which I surprisingly found myself enjoying very much! I intend to keep vending my artwork and build relationships with shops around Houston, and I am glad to say I’ve added body art to my vendor booth in-person. I still make art for my own peace, but it’s honoring to see my art leave my hands and make another person’s day!

If you had to pick three qualities that are most important to develop, which three would you say matter most?

When making art, one thing I’ve come to accept is the importance of practice and patience. I began painting in 2016 in high school and would be frustrated over “bad” pieces and struggle putting what’s in my mind onto paper. However, knowing I did my best was enough to show me I could not get worse, and I could only get better from there. I kept that mindset and grew patient with learning art tips to find out what works best for me. Ultimately, this contributed to me discovering my art style. Practicing when I am able, not forced, and in the mindset to improve helped me embrace my efforts without disdain.
Also, setting time aside to work on art is time set aside to work on yourself. I find art therapeutic and sharing it connects me to those who come across my artwork. For example, if I do not make the time to create, my creativity is rushed and reflected in the work with incomplete brush strokes and incomplete messages. The complexity of an artistic expression falls empty and leaves meaning longing to expressed. Perhaps artists who paint accurate realism share a similar feeling of being unable to finish immortalizing a moment by missing exact details on their canvas without setting enough time aside to paint. Art is capable of speech if allocated the time to do so no matter how long it takes until completion.
Lastly, I like to remember the most eccentric artists can make impacts as heavy as traditional artists. I do not fit in a common niche of art and used to be afraid of sharing what I create until I gave into the impulse of giving the world something I would like to see more of. To this day, I get a range of reactions of “Ooh!” and “Ew!” despite being in art-friendly environments. However, I take pride in knowing I can invoke a ton of reactions like a communicative superpower. I’ve learned being open-minded is worth the chance of being understood and potentially viewed as an iconic creative.

We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?

I believe it’s possible to balance strengths and weaknesses after developing them individually to form a foundation for future greatness. Strengths were once a weak point before it was fed determination and a focus on improvement. With enough effort towards one ability, working on another ability to the same standard can help relieve the stress of one intense demand and encourage adaptability to counter pure inexperience.
When I face paint, I use water-based and alcohol-based paint. Although I prefer the alcohol paint for its quick airbrush application (strength), some people may feel ticklish and can have their face paint completed by brushing on water-based paint (weak point). Instead of losing a client, I learned how to brush paint to a comfortable capacity so I may continue my work as an artist with as few interruptions and open art opportunities as possible. Over time, I will be fostering my versatile skills to an equal level and have a better hand on both methods. This way, I will be able to have both paint types ready to go as they are needed. I value having a little preparation here and there rather than just one area.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://poofiart.grweb.site/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/poofiart/

Image Credits

Monyar Photography